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silkm0ths's review
4.0
really beautiful, learnt a lot from this, its crazy what parts of history are kept hidden. kept on thinking so so true ! although it is a book about history (its kinda fun fact history though so be prepared for that, more of a political argument)it can also be seen as a historical document to how gender was viewed in the 90s compared to today, its interesting to see the changes but also quite depressing that all these arguments have always existed against transphobia and to consider that honestly a lot of things have gotten worse for trans people. This book is further proof that the lesbian and trans community are closely tied despite bigots attempts to divide us. As someone who doesnt really consider myself a woman or a man, but something in between without really falling under trans or nonbinary umbrella(just see myself as a lesbian) I see myself a lot in how Leslie Feinberg writes about gender. Loved the picture section. One star removed cause kinda over simplifies things about the catholic church I was raised catholic so maybe im a little easy on them tho xoxo
isaacb's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Not exactly what I thought it would be (each chapter being about a different gender non conforming person) but I LOVE what it was instead
addywalker's review
5.0
An absolute must read. Mind blowing reality rocking I’d send it to you but I have to keep it to read again
anpu325's review
4.0
I loved this book! It is inspirational to be able to see yourself in history, when that is so seldom the case. This book gave me so many leads that I want to follow up on. I also think the approach of interviewing 2 spirit people and asking them to describe their identities was a great methodology. I do have to say though that this book is not particularly historically accurate or rigorous regarding ancient history and prehistory which are the areas of history that I am more familiar with. The idea that Leslie reiterates over and over that prehistory was a utopian matriarchal commune basically has no evidence to support it at all. I would call this speculative fiction rather than a history. I can't really blame Leslie too much though, since this idea of a mother-goddess worshipping prehistoric matriarchal society was kind of an academic fad in the 70's. Also this book contained actually factually inaccurate information about Hatshepsut, namely that she was succeeded by her husband rather than her stepson, which is just not true. Leslie cites a medical journal from the 1950's for that. So, while I feel like this book does not have the standards of historical rigor that one would expect from a history book, I am still so glad it exists and that we have it. We deserve to see ourselves in history. And there is a lot of valid information contained here too!!